BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and ANGELA CELIS
BUDGET Secretary Wendel Avisado on Thursday said the government, at the moment, is not keen on seeking a supplemental budget to fund the government’s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Avisado, in a virtual briefing, said that for the executive to request a supplemental budget from Congress, it has to have new sources of revenues or taxes, and excess collection which it can tap.
“We have discussed in the economic development cluster and the DBCC (Development and Budget Coordination Committee), the possibility of asking for a supplemental budget. For now, it cannot be done because the requirement for a supplemental budget is to have a new source of revenues or taxes and second, if there is an excess on our collection — in both cases, we have none. So there is no basis for a proposed supplemental budget,” Avisado said.
Avisado said the DBM is still collating data from other government agencies to determine if there are other available resources that can be tapped for additional revenues.
Avisado also said the DBM has so far released P353.86 billion for various COVID-19-related programs of different government agencies.
As of May 28, the DBM has released some P353.86 to various departments and agencies, of which about P246.5 billion was sourced from pooled savings, P96.7 billion from unprogrammed appropriation, and P10.6 billion from reprogramming of beneficiaries and purpose of existing programs, activities and projects.
From the pooled savings, Avisado said P196 billion was released for the Social Amelioration Program and P2.5 billion for the COVID-19 adjustment measures program for overseas Filipino workers.
“We also provided Bayanihan grants to cities and municipalities for them to be able to also respond to the local needs for COVID-19 at P30.8 billion, which is equivalent to an additional one month internal revenue allotments (IRA), and for the provinces, P6.1 billion equivalent to one half of their total monthly IRA,” Avisado said.
Another P1.9 billion was released to the Department of Health for the purchase of real-time polymerase chain reaction detection kits.
“For the ALPAS (Ahon Lahat, Pagkain Sapat Laban COVID-19) program, (we released) P8.5 billion, to make sure that we’re able to meet the food requirements of the country and get to prepare for any eventuality, because we’re not only talking about COVID-19 here, but also natural calamities that may come anytime,” the DBM chief said.
Avisado said P93 million was provided as funding support for the operational requirements of temporary treatment and monitoring facilities under the Philippine National Police, and another P150 million for the same under the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“Just recently, we released to the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital to augment their operational requirements P400 million,” he said.
Under the unprogrammed appropriations, the DBM released P51 billion to the Department of Finance to cover the requirements for the Small Business Wage Subsidy program, while P45.7 billion was released to the DOH as supplemental funding for the health sector.
Avisado said the realignments of the budget were made possible under authority of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
